Bobby Shmurda’s fall from grace almost seemed unreal.
At the peak of his popularity, Shmurda and several other members of the GS9 collective were arrested and hit with numerous charges. The Brooklynite was given a bail of $1 million, which essentially meant staying behind bars for years before eventually copping a plea deal for seven years. Like any true Hollywood story (or New York in this case), many people in the industry turned their back on the young man who essentially owned a chunk of 2014 through “Hot N*gga.” Even just months into signing with Epic Records, their parent company Sony refused to sign the checks to set him free until his court date.
Meanwhile, one of the individuals that stayed down with Shmurda from the outside was his uncle and manager Debo Wilson. His label Hard Tyme Records was an initial investor in Shmurda and made the link to Sha Money XL and Epic Records. Sure, there was that $20,000 lawsuit that put him in the news as the rumor mill accused him of taking advantage of his nephew. But that didn’t matter much to Wilson. Now, it’s all about supporting the young man who became an example of how biased the United States justice system can be.
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“Yeah, Being Honest, He Should Have Stayed In Florida”
HipHopDX:In his first interview since taking the plea deal, Bobby Shmurda and Rowdy Rebel said some pretty heavy stuff in regards to the handling of their case. What are your thoughts about how everything turned out?
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Debo Wilson: I mean the whole situation was crazy. What the state did to him was kind of fucked up. At the end of the day, this is how shit goes in America. Being a young black man coming up is hard. The system doesn’t work for us. For him, I look at him as a strong black man. Not too many kids his age are as strong as him. Literally, he took time because he didn’t want to tell on his friends. That’s what his situation was. Was he going to tell on his friends and get less time or stay quiet and stay in? They gave him an option. He rode with his friends. For him, that’s real stand up because most dudes won’t do that. In these times, niggas is telling on each other. I feel like it was a fucked up situation that he was put in. It was a hard decision. God bless him. I know he’ll get out and make some good music. He’s writing and staying focused. He’s still the same Bobby. He still smiles and cracks jokes. He’s a human being.
They took him away from the things he loves to do like be with his family and all his little cousins. He got a bunch of cousins that look up to him and love him. He put on a lot of kids from his neighborhood and got them deals. He did a lot. Together, we did a lot. With the help of Sha Money XL, we got a situation. He’s a good friend of mine and I’ll always respect Sha for that. The situation turned out to be disastrous after the fact, but it was a learning experience. Just like Bobby gotta learn from this, I gotta learn from it too. We learn from the mistakes we make in life and try to move on. He’s going to come home and do the right thing. He’s going to stay away from the wrong people and not try to help all of the wrong people. That’s one of the main things too. You can’t help everyone.
When you try to do that, that’s when you get into the wrong situation. He was trying to change people’s life. Like you don’t understand, these kids grow up in a community that’s bad. What do y’all expect? They grow up in a community where they got to defend their lives. They can’t even walk down the street without someone trying to harm one of them. They’re put into a jungle. If they were somewhere else, they wouldn’t be in that situation. It’s their environment. They’re going to rap about what they see every day. I keep repeating that. That doesn’t mean they’re supposed to report everything they see. What are they going to do? Call 911? They lying on muthafuckas and framing muthafuckas when they can’t get their job done.
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That’s the circumstances. They railroaded those kids and gave them 100 years and 90 years in prison and all this dumb ass shit. I think it’s ridiculous and it only happens to kids in those environments. You ain’t going to see no white boy get 100 years. You’re not going to see that. They say they’re making an example out of him. What do you mean by that? Y’all been making an example out of black folks for years. When are the examples going to stop? Do y’all jobs. Arrest who you need to arrest and stop framing a muthafucka just because they know somebody. Everybody know someone that do some shit. If you out there doing some shit, I can’t stop you from doing what you doing.
DX: Even with the initial arrest in 2014, was there anything that Bobby could have done to prevent this whole situation from happening in the first place?
Debo Wilson: Yeah, being honest, he should have stayed in Florida. He needed to stay away from those guys and he would have been a lot better. He was just trying to help everybody. That’s where he went wrong at. He thought because he had a deal, he had to help everyone in his neighborhood. He didn’t want anyone to feel as if he had turned his back on them. Bobby used to tell me all the time that he didn’t want anyone to feel like he was turning his back on anyone. He had a place out in Florida so it wouldn’t be him turning his back. They could have
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He had a place out in Florida so it wouldn’t be him turning his back. They could have came and visited. It wasn’t him trying to turn his back on them. If you continue to live in that environment, they were going to continue to attack him. You know the cops don’t like you. Plus, Bobby is outspoken. That’s one of the things that the cops didn’t like about him. He was an outspoken young man. I was there half-the-time. They’ve thrown me to the ground a couple of times and put guns in my face. It’s not like anyone is making this shit up. They’ve pulled us over and it’s been like 12 cops asking us where the guns and drugs are at. I swear.
When Bobby was with me, all the times we got pulled over, they ain’t never find shit and there weren’t any problems. When they see me in Miami and I’m not with him, they attack him. All of them are kids so they don’t know the law and certain things. Even when they were attacking us, I was putting them in their place. They were violating our rights. You can’t pull us over every time you see us. They kept fucking with him. He just ignored it and started talking shit about them on Instagram and social media. After a while, that got to them. They look at it like this little kid has money and coming up. Who he think he talking to? They’re sitting there in the office mad as fuck that he’s making more money than them and talking shit. They had to do something and shut him the fuck up. He’s outspoken. He kind of reminds me of Tupac and just says whatever the fuck he wants. A lot of the times, you have to watch what you’re saying. I know sometimes he was lashing out, but sometimes you have to hold that. People were going to take that a certain kind of way and handle it their way.
I tell people all the time, America is built on a fucking lie. Muthafuckas are going to say and do what they want. Black men still gotta deal with shit. You see it every day. Cops are showing us more every day. With a Black president, we have more cops killing black people. How the fuck is that in 2016? In 2016, we have a Black president and more cops killing us. Ain’t nothing happening to them. They not getting 80 years. These people are paid to uphold the law. They’re supposed to set a bigger example than these young kids running around. These delinquents don’t have their father because they put their fathers away and gave them 100 years before they grow up. Bobby is one of those prime examples and he got attached to something he didn’t even do. The cops have the biggest gang. Ain’t nothing bigger than that. The mob ain’t got shit on
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The cops have the biggest gang. Ain’t nothing bigger than that. The mob ain’t got shit on them niggas. They got the biggest gang. They can lock you up and frame you. You know how much money Bobby had to spend? It was too much money for this bullshit. They were trying to exploit him. That young man did everything he could to save his homeboys and I commend him for that. A lot of kids his age wouldn’t have done that. He’s raised by real people and he’s a man of character. That’s why Bobby’s dad is doing time because they wanted him to tell and he wouldn’t do that. I respect that. You don’t have people like that anymore.
Wilson On Patching Things Up With Shmurda
DX: Before the arrest, there was friction between you and Bobby that included some lawsuits.
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Debo Wilson: We had our differences because like I said, he had all the people around him. We kept having differences about that situation and he wasn’t getting along with one of my partners, but we were trying to protect him. He sees that now. At the end of the day, that’s family. I was trying to let him know that some people didn’t give a fuck about him. They were dick riding his wave. Half these niggas weren’t paying attention to his shit until it got it. Once it got hot, they came. He was overwhelmed by a lot of things people kept asking for.
That was the thing he would complain to me about. He was trying to embrace everything and show love. The problem is that we showed too much love. We gave too much and showed too much. We understand that. I used to wonder why executives, managers and artists used to act a certain way. Now, I understand. I can’t even get mad anymore. I see why they do what they do. They got people to take advantage of shit and act like you owe them something. I invested all of the money into Bobby. Ain’t nobody invest and give a shit until he became hot. We did that. Hard Tymes Records did that. We put on all his homeboys and showed love. Anytime someone called us for something, we did it. That’s real shit.
DX: When was the moment you and Bobby sat down and hashed out your differences?
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Debo Wilson: I went and visited him with Ball Reckless, another artist signed to Hard Tyme. Him and Ball are real close and say they look like each other. I ain’t even going to lie. He’s not even angry at the industry and he learned from the shit. He understands that some people shitted on him. When you a young dude from the hood, you’ve seen a lot of shit in your lifetime. When he got a chance to sit down and think, you understand and take it in stride. He told me he was only facing five years if he told on Rowdy. That was like four months ago. I told him that was on him. Loyalty above anything. The cops are loyal to each other. They do something and the person who does paperwork for them helps them and then the police chief helps with the lie. They all work together. Even the public defender gets paid to hurry up a case. That’s how the justice system works. If they can work together, why can’t we?
Wilson Discusses The Chances Of Bobby Getting Back Into The Limelight After Prison & The Future Of Hard Tymes Records
DX: There’s a stigma with rappers both male and female who have a hard time getting back into the limelight after incarceration. How difficult is it going to be for Bobby when he gets out? Is there a plan on your end?
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Debo Wilson: Right now, Bobby is just writing. He’s cool as a young man turning into a man. He’s getting wiser. He’s just writing and feeling out what he wants to do. Whatever he wants to do, I’m behind him 100 percent. I’m supporting him. It’s on him. If he wants to come out and make it, he’s going to move. If he wants to come out and do something else, that’s what it’s going to be. Ain’t nobody have his destiny. It’s in his hands. On that note, he knows what we did with “Hot N*gga.” We gave that label a hot record. We did all the leg work and everything. It was great having the machine behind us. At the end of the day, it’s business. These people are not our family. It’s a different situation. He has his family and business and he’ll handle it when he gets home.
Him and Rowdy are going to come home and do big things. Rowdy going hard and writing too. They’re trying to get they mind right. We also have to understand that they’re young. It’s not like they’re getting out of prison when they’re like 30 or 40. They’ll still be in their 20s. They lit. Most artists getting signed nowadays are old anyway. They can come home and do they thing. Don’t count them out. Everyone out here is jerking they swag and shit and don’t show them no love. I see people talking about Shmoney this and Shmoney that. I see niggas doing the Shmoney and Rowdy dance in every video. You got bitches rappin’ like them now. I hear songs come out, they sound like Bobby or Rowdy.
DX: Are you still managing Bobby?
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Debo Wilson: We still are, contract wise, but we have some things to discuss shit. Like I said, we family. We’re not even thinking about that. I don’t even give a fuck about that now. I just want to see him make it out of what he’s going through. We understand now how people will try to come and push you away. We understood that. People will do everything in their power just to be famous. A bunch of characters. When you see a young nigga trying to do something, give him some advice, don’t give him drugs. Don’t tell people it’s cool to do something when it’s not. Every dog has its day, right? You going to hear about me and Hard Tyme Records. Remember that.
DX: So what exactly is the plan for Hard Tyme Records?
Debo Wilson: Right now we have a lot of projects we’re working on and trying to put together. I was trying to see what was going on with Bobby’s situation before I moved on to anything. I was trying to make sure he’s good. He told me when I got to see him that he good. That little kid is strong. He just told me to get to work. You know Ball is up next. Stackz is up next. We just got to work and get it off the later like we did with GS9. I know that Bobby and Rowdy are grown now and they understand everything. Young black men and young black women, y’all learn from Bobby’s experience.
